Playing basketball for your country in the Olympics can lead to growth in the NBA, and the Indiana Pacers have plenty of reason to believe that will happen with Andrew Nembhard this coming season.
Prior to the 2024 Paris Olympics, the last Pacers player to be an Olympian was Paul George in 2016. He was a part of Team USA, and they rolled to a gold medal in Rio. George came back to the NBA and set a new career high in points per game and field goal percentage on his way to his fourth All-Star appearance. Leandro Barbosa spent 2012 with the Pacers before playing for Brazil in the London games that year and came back to the NBA a more refined passer, albeit not with Indiana.
Nembhard (and Tyrese Haliburton) can replicate that pattern. The 24-year old and the rest of Team Canada won't be happy with a 5-8th place finish after falling to France on Tuesday, but it may lead to more long-term success for the young Pacers guard.
"Point guard is a vital position in FIBA, the games are short, every possession matters and that's one of his great strengths," Rowan Barrett, the general manager of Canada's men's national team, said of Nembhard. "He's a very, very good decision maker, very calm."
At his best, Nembhared showed why he drew praise from teammates Jamal Murray and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander during the Olympics. His scoring, both within the flow of the offense and to his own rhythm, were valuable for the Canadian bench. Murray struggled from the field, but the second unit with him and Nembhard was still effective in large part thanks to that duo's potency playing either on or off of the ball.
When Canada needed Nembhard to score, he did. He had 18 points against Spain to secure Canada's top spot in Group A, for example. When passing was more important, he found his teammates — the young ball hander had five assists in a win over France during a pre-Olympics exhibition.
That balance is exactly what Nembhard tries to strike every night with the Pacers. Some nights, playing next to Haliburton means that Nembhard needs to cut and shoot when open. Other outings, he will have to create his own shot. In between, he's a terrific connector. Playing alongside different talented guards with Canada showed Nembhard's improvements in those areas.
"He plays with the highest of IQs, he's probably one of my favorite players in the NBA right now, he's just very underrated," Murray said of Nembhard.
In his four Olympic outings, Nembhard averaged 6.3 points and 1.3 assists per game. He shot 63.6% on two-point looks and 50% from long range without missing a free throw. Turnovers were his only statistical blemish, but he more than made up for it with great defense, efficient scoring, and useful passing.
For Nembhard, improvement next season could mean a number of things. It could be better shooting from long range, or refined attacking abilities. Perhaps he becomes a better passer or cutter. Maybe his scoring jumps as his unique mid-range jumper falls more often. The most boring, yet most likely, path is that he gets incrementally better at many skills.
Regardless of what improvement looks like for Nembhard this coming season, he showed how his game fits next to anyone in the Olympics. He played, and defended, every position one through three. He did that in various lineups that took different shapes. Indiana has a deep team that will have a similar amount of lineup options this season. The more Nembhard can fit in, the better — players like him who have two-way ability hit the court for big minutes.
The Canadian guard finished last season incredibly strong by putting together two dominant outings in the Eastern Conference Finals. He showed his high ceiling in those games, and he was named to Team Canada about a month later. It was an incredible summer for Nembhard.
He will get closer to his ceiling this coming season — which is part of why the Pacers gave him a three-year contract extension late in July. They believe in his future and want him around for the long haul.
Now, they'll have him, and he's coming off of a pivotal basketball moment — he just played in his first Olympics. The crowds are bigger, and the stakes are higher. Nembhard handled it well, and he now enters a third season with the Pacers that should be his best yet.
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